Best books on Hoxha?

[RedKobra]

I'm looking for both histories of Hoxha & his period as leader aswell as any books about his ideas.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

Hoxha Without Hoxha: A Magician's Guide To A Master of the Trade by David Copperfield

You should just look through ismail's posts http://www.revleft.com/vb/member.php?u=14056

[The Feral Underclass]

You need Professor Ismail to help you.

[Art Vandelay]

I just know a childish grin is going creep across Ismail's face when he sees this thread. I'm fairly confident that days when people ask about Hoxha on revleft are better than birthdays to him.

[Ismail]

There is no English-language biography of him. The closest thing to an "official" biography of him put out by the Albanians are two pages in the History of the Party of Labour of Albania (edited in part by Hoxha himself):

Enver Hoxha was born on October 16, 1908 in Gjirokastra. The early years of his life coincided with a very critical period for the country when successive foreign invaders burnt and laid waste whole districts, murdered the population en masse and spread misery everywhere. Life taught him to hate the enemies of the Homeland and, although still very young, he joined the 1924 democratic movement.

At the Korça Lyceum, from which he graduated in 1930, Enver Hoxha had his first experience of the brutality of the Zogite authorities and of their jail for having organized with his comrades a demonstration in protest against thefts perpetrated at the expense of the student body.

He went to France to pursue his higher studies. His pronounced democratic propensities made Enver Hoxha a sympathizer of the French communist movement. In Paris he established connections with the editorial board of «L’Humanite», organ of the Central Committee of the French Communist Party, to which he contributed materials denouncing the Zogite regime in Albania.

When his scholarship was discontinued, Enver Hoxha was obliged to go to Belgium where he worked for a period at the Albanian Consulate in Brussels and continued his studies at the same time. But Zog’s agents abroad detected his anti-Zogite activity. He was dismissed from his job and was obliged to return to Albania in 1936...

Enver Hoxha began his revolutionary activity in his home country as a teacher, first at the Tirana Gymnasium and then at the Korça Lyceum. He joined the Korça Communist Group and became one of its most active members. He made skilful use of the school platform in order to impart democratic and communist ideas to the students. He became, also, one of the principal educators of the 'Rinia Korçare' (Korça Youth) out-of school organization and an indefatigable militant for the unity of the Albanian communist movement.

On the eve of the fascist occupation Enver Hoxha, together with the other comrades of the group, worked with might and main to organize a popular resistance. He kept up these efforts also after the occupation of the country. His revolutionary activity brought him under the eye of the fascist invaders who dismissed him from his job as an 'element opposed to the regime'. The leadership of the Korça Communist Group decided to send him to Tirana, charging him with the task of extending the activity of the group on a sound basis, by organizing the anti-fascist movement in the capital and other districts of the country.

Appreciating the determination of the rank-and-file members of the communist groups to fight against fascism and their ardent desire for the unity of the communist movement and the founding of the Party, Enver Hoxha, who was uninfected with the group spirit, worked with them patiently and wisely, tirelessly explaining things to them and organizing them. At the same time he established connections with patriotic nationalists who hated the fascist invaders and were willing to fight them.And then, after working alongside others to unite the different communist groups, he organized a large anti-fascist demonstration in the capital on October 28, 1941 (to coincide with the anniversary of Mussolini's "March on Rome"), went underground as a wanted man sentenced to death by the occupiers, and in November that same year this happened:

The Meeting of the Communist Groups to found the Party was held in secrecy in Tirana from 8th to 14th November, 1941. It was attended by 15 persons. Among them were Enver Hoxha, Qemal Stafa, Vasil Shanto, Pilo Peristeri and others.

The main problem for which the meeting had been called was solved in principle right at the start. On November 8 the historic decision was taken to merge the groups and found the Communist Party of Albania (CPA)....

A Central Committee (Provisional) composed of seven members was elected to lead the Party. Enver Hoxha was charged with heading it, though no secretary was appointed.That's pretty much it. He wrote various autobiographies, three of which dealt with his youth, his activities in France, and his activities in 1939-1941.

Volume V of his Selected Works contains his major writings (Imperialism and the Revolution, Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism, etc.): http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_V_eng.pdf

Fairly good bourgeois works on the Hoxha period are A Coming of Age: Albania under Enver Hoxha by James S. O'Donnell (which you can find online) and Socialist Albania since 1944 by Peter R. Prifti.

[RedWorker]

There is no English-language biography of him.

get to work

[The Disillusionist]

Here's a good introductory page on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

[Ismail]

Here's a good introductory page on him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse

:laugh: :laugh::laugh:
Nah that's Mao.

http://www.tshirtbordello.com/images/mickey-mao-s1.gif

But here are two introductions which I myself wrote:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Albanian_split
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Albanian_split

[RedWorker]

Ismail hasn't even written an English biography of Hoxha, honestly I'm disappointed now.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

Ismail hasn't even written an English biography of Hoxha, honestly I'm disappointed now.
He will write one soon enough.

[Ismail]

Thinking about it, I guess this sorta counts as a biographical substitute: http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/Enver_Hoxha_His_Life_and_Work.pdf (it's a long English-language picture book published after he died, although it has quite a bit of text on his life as well.)

But yeah I wouldn't write a biography unless I knew Albanian and studied a whole bunch of stuff in that language, otherwise I'd just be paraphrasing what others have already written in English.

[RedWorker]

He doesn't even speak Albanian? What a fraud. Honestly I'm starting to think Ismail is a fascist infiltrated in the board. ;)

[BIXX]

Damn Ismail, you're dropping the ball.

[Ismail]

I do intend to rewrite the entire Enver Hoxha Wiki article one day, if that is any consolation. http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc207/MrdieII/emot-colbert.gif

[BIXX]

I do intend to rewrite the entire Enver Hoxha Wiki article one day, if that is any consolation. http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc207/MrdieII/emot-colbert.gif
Hmmm... I'll give you a pass, just this once.

[newdayrising]

I do intend to rewrite the entire Enver Hoxha Wiki article one day, if that is any consolation. http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc207/MrdieII/emot-colbert.gif

Just for curiosities sake, I'm not being sarcastic: Ismail, where you similarly devoted to something else before you got into Hoxhaism? Do you have other interests and hobbies you go this deep into?

[Atsumari]

I can confirm from my Chatango conversations with Ismail that he is fully capable of eating and sleeping.

[newdayrising]

I don't know what Chatango is, but was thinking maybe he's a super expert on something else equally specific outside of politics as well.

[Ismail]

Just for curiosities sake, I'm not being sarcastic: Ismail, where you similarly devoted to something else before you got into Hoxhaism? Do you have other interests and hobbies you go this deep into?I'm into modern history in general, so I have a bunch of books on Africa for example, a bunch of the USSR, on the USA, etc. Albania is a subject I focus on in particular though.

Of the 30 books I've bought since August, only 2 are about Albania (both dealing with it during WWII.) I may buy another book covering the Hoxha period in a month or two.

[Hieremias]

Some of his theoretical work is available translated. I found a paperback copy of Imperialism and The Revolution at a local Goodwill. The publisher of the aforementioned text also offers The Selected Works of Enver Hoxha on amazon.

[Ismail]

The publisher of the aforementioned text also offers The Selected Works of Enver Hoxha on amazon.That's not actually his selected works though. His actual Selected Works are in six volumes:

* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_I_eng.pdf (1941-1948)
* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_II_eng.pdf (1948-1960)
* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_III_eng.pdf (1960-1965)
* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_IV_eng.pdf (1966-1975)
* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_V_eng.pdf (1976-1980)
* http://www.enverhoxha.ru/Archive_of_books/English/enver_hoxha_selected_works_volume_VI_eng.pdf (1980-1984)

The "selected works" of Hoxha on Amazon are deceptively marketed, they're put out by a publisher of print-on-demand books that just takes the texts of Hoxha's writings on marxists.org (which comprise only a few things he's written) and proclaims them his "selected works." Hoxha isn't the only author they do that with.

[Hieremias]

That's not actually his selected works though. His actual Selected Works are in six volumes:

Well, I stand corrected...not worthy; I am eager to browse the linked work though as I always harbored an intrest in Hoxha's theoritical work.

[Comrade Jacob]

Euro-Communism is anti-Communism

[Ismail]

Euro-Communism is anti-CommunismHe said on Hoxha, not by him.

But yeah that's one of his major writings, and is contained in Volume V of his Selected Works I've linked to above. It's still relevant as many of the claims of the Eurocommunists as to the supposedly "socialist" nature of state ownership under capitalism, the proletariat no longer playing a leading role in transforming society, Marxism-Leninism being a basically "Russian" phenomenon of little relevance to North America or Western Europe, etc. are still heard in the "left" to this day.

[Comrade Jacob]

He said on Hoxha, not by him.

But yeah that's one of his major writings, and is contained in Volume V of his Selected Works I've linked to above. It's still relevant as many of the claims of the Eurocommunists as to the supposedly "socialist" nature of state ownership under capitalism, the proletariat no longer playing a leading role in transforming society, Marxism-Leninism being a basically "Russian" phenomenon of little relevance to North America or Western Europe, etc. are still heard in the "left" to this day.

Despite being a Maoist I find Hoxha can be a great source on Euro-communism and Khrushchevite-revisionism.

[Ismail]

Despite being a Maoist I find Hoxha can be a great source on Euro-communism and Khrushchevite-revisionism.The main reason why Albania and China found enough common ground to work together in the 1960s-70s is because their critiques of Soviet revisionism were quite close, except that the Chinese blamed the rise of said revisionism on Stalin's "mistakes" and supposed "dogmatism" and said that Mao Zedong Thought was the cure.